Judge replaces Davidson public guardian as woman's conservator

Mar. 21, 2013

In 2012, public guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart billed clients more than $400,000. Her practice of charging her lawyer fees for nonlegal tasks — bills paid directly out of her wards' funds — has made her work at least twice as expensive as others' work. / File / The Tennessean

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

The Davidson public guardian who courts records show charged $986 to accompany her ward to a Christmas concert at the Schermerhorn was replaced without opposition Wednesday by Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy after a brief hearing.

Kennedy approved a petition to have Myra S. Whitaker of Hendersonville take over as the conservator of her sister, Marlene Spalding. Whitaker replaces Davidson Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart.

The move to replace Stuart followed a report in The Tennessean on the fees charged by Stuart, who was first voted into the post by Metro Council in 2008 and is now serving her second four-year term.

Court records show Stuart has regularly charged her full hourly fee for legal services regardless of the service performed. Her current fee is $225 an hour. In Spalding’s case she charged $197.22 an hour to attend the 2011 Christmas performance of Handel’s Messiah. She charged $1,282 to accompany Spalding on a shopping trip in March of last year.

In court Wednesday, Everette Parrish, the attorney for Whitaker, said that Spalding’s sister was now willing and able to become conservator. Whitaker was the original conservator but she was replaced by Stuart in 2010 when her husband became ill. He has since recovered and was present at the hearing.

In court papers Parrish noted that Whitaker would serve without charging any fees.

Stuart has stated in an email response to questions from the Tennessean that she would reimburse Spalding for an apparent double billing on the March 2012 shopping trip. She submitted fees of $1,183 and $1,282 for the trip. Parrish said following the hearing that he had not yet heard from Stuart about that reimbursement.

Stuart in a March 11 letter to Metro Council, obtained by The Tennessean Wednesday, said she charged only $75 an hour to take Spalding to the Christmas concert, even though her affidavit to the court stated her hourly rate $197.22. She said the $197.22 is a composite rate generated by her computer program — her full hourly rate is $225. She did not address the shopping trip in the letter.

The action in the Spalding case comes as the General Assembly is moving forward on a proposal to rewrite the state law governing conservatorships. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the proposal on an 8-0 vote Tuesday.

Under the bill, which was proposed by the Tennessee Bar Association, new procedures would be established for emergency conservatorships. Currently there are no statewide standards. A judge would have to rule that the proposed ward was at risk of serious harm for the emergency order to go into effect and the person being conserved would have to be notified within 48 hours of the order and a hearing held within five days. Other provisions clarify the role of court appointed lawyers known as guardian ad litems, who act as fact finders for the court.

The bill requires that any conservatorship order be as least restrictive as possible with the exact powers being turned over to the conservator to be clearly specified.